Left to right: Voices 33, Island 67

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Voices 33

環山河塗

民國十年三月二十四日搭南京到刻

Surrounded by mountains and tidal shores.

Inscribed by a passenger who arrived on the SS Nanking
24th day of the 3rd month, Year 10 of the Republic

Listen to the inscription in Cantonese ⏯

Island 67

黄家子弟本香城
挺身投筆赴美京
買棹到了金山地
誰知授我過埃崙
我國圖強無比樣
船泊岸邊直可登

民國十三廿肆晨
逍遙子鐵城閒筆

I am a member of the Wong clan from Heung City.
I threw away my writing brush and pushed forward, journeying to the capital of the U.S.
I bought an oar and arrived in the land of Gold Mountain.
Who was to know they would banish me to Island?
If my country had contrived to make herself strong, this never would have happened.
Then when the ship had docked, we could have gone directly ashore.

Dawn of the 24th, in the thirteenth year of the Republic
Idle brushstrokes of a wanderer from the Town of Iron

Listen to the poem in Heungshan (Shekki, Long Du) ⏯

Translations:
Egan, Charles. Voices of Angel Island: Inscriptions and Immigrant Poetry, 1910-1945. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
Lai, H. Mark, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung, eds. Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940. Second edition. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014.